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Migratory Species
experts meet to confront challenges in the Americas
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Representatives from the Convention on
Migratory Species, Ramsar Convention, UNEP, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Birdlife International, the GEF Secretariat, International
Crane Foundation, and Wetlands International met to discuss several
Global projects on Migratory Species. Specific to the Western Hemisphere
Migratory Species Initiative (WHMSI) a project entitled: Conservation of
globally important migratory species and the critical habitats needed to
complete their lifecycles within the Americas is under design. Migratory
species are excellent indicators of large-scale ecosystem health and
landscape integrity. Moreover, because of the large distances they
travel and sensitivity to minor ecological changes at sites across their
established routes, migratory species are most likely to be affected by
climate change and offer a glimpse into how ecosystems are changing.
There are already well developed protocols for monitoring a variety of
migratory species and their lifecycles, and the ecological requirements
of many species are fairly well-known. The management approach however,
needed to successfully address threats to different populations of
migratory species, is highly complex and requires careful collaboration
among the entire network of an individual species’ range.
Production systems and economic growth in Latin America have been built
upon resource depletion and low priority has been given to the
environment in national priorities and development strategies. This has
resulted in the establishment of weak and poorly staffed environmental
institutions at multiple levels, leading to uneven capacity and limited
skills to truly manage migratory species and the ecological complexes of
which they are part in a holistic and coordinated fashion.
Without the proposed intervention the ongoing degradation of sites,
resource depletion and associated decline of healthy viable populations
of migratory species and associated biodiversity loss will continue
unabated. The lack of international and national capacity to manage,
coordinate and cooperate in flyway planning and management will persist,
in particular in specific sub-regions. This will lead to a gradual
reduction in the viability of certain flyway routes and the loss of
certain globally-significant species that are dependent on them as well
as the availability of key indicator species to gauge the effects of and
implement measures to mitigate the impact of climate change.
The Americas have not benefited altogether from similar programmatic
models which have been successfully implemented in other areas of the
world (i.e.; through the GEF-funded and UNEP-implemented Wings Over
Wetlands www.wingsoverwetlands.org and Siberian Crane http://www.scwp.info/
projects). These initiatives have clearly demonstrated the value and
effectiveness of such multi-scale and multi-pronged approaches to
migratory species conservation and habitat management. It is clear that
immediate corrective action is needed specifically across the Americas
to ultimately reverse this disturbing trend of declines of many of the
long distance migrants (such as the Red Knot Calidris canutus rufa and
Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres) and to promote a critical transition
to stronger conservation management and sustainable development across
the hemisphere.
At the present time, the major barrier to developing and implementing
biodiversity conservation policies and management practices within the
Americas is the lack of demand-driven planning tools, inadequate
knowledge at all levels, shortage of trained personnel and weak
institutions in areas where collaborative coordinated measures are most
needed. Traditionally, UNEP has played a special role in migratory
species initiatives and the GEF is one of the few mechanisms available
for supporting these types of projects. The necessary funds to execute
such a strategic-level program and address these root causes are only
available from a few other donors in the region and are not sufficient
to comprehensively address the problems on a meaningful scale. The
combination of these interventions alongside those from the GEF both
increases the levels of funding to achieve a strategic flyway scale
solution and provides the international basis on which it can be built.
The goal of this four-year project is to build upon and consolidate the
expertise of existing WHMSI and other regional migratory species efforts
to significantly enhance and up-scale conservation efforts throughout
the Americas by improving conservation planning, strengthening
institutional and human capacity, and nurturing political awareness,
commitment and cooperation at all levels. This programmatic approach
will be applied regionally, but more importantly along the network of
critical sites for migratory species in a collaborative and coordinated
manner.
Project components of Conservation of globally important migratory
species and the critical habitats needed to complete their lifecycles
within the Americas include:
• Supporting conservation planning and decision making for migratory
species and their habitats in the Americas;
• Mainstreaming of migratory species-related issues and priorities at
all levels;
• Enhancing institutional collaboration and networking to support
migratory species conservation;
• Building professional capacity for more enhanced and better
coordinated migratory species conservation and management of their
habitats; and
• Demonstrating practical collaborative conservation approaches along
specific migratory routes of migratory species.
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